To be upset at peoples reaction to the muzzle?

[Doggydoggydoggy]

Just that really.

Dog wears one because she has nipped a few people.

She is not people aggressive.

I had a woman today clearly frightened because she ran near her buggy.
Near as in running past it.
Not barking/lunging/acting aggressive/approaching the child etc.

The woman got really scared at the sight of my dog, recoiled pulling the buggy so my dog did what most dogs will do in response and looked at her and went to approach.

So I called her back to me immediately and put her lead on.
That didn’t stop the woman constantly looking back angrily at me as she was walking ahead.

I really don’t think my dog had done anything that would reasonably make anyone feel frightened.

I can only assume it is the muzzle making the mum think she must be some child mauling demon.

And I find it really upsetting.

I wanted to talk to her and explain that she has the muzzle for nipping dogs and that I was sorry she frightened her but she honestly poses no risk to her child and has no interest in her child.
But her constant looking back and glaring at me made me feel really uncomfortable so I didn’t.

To april that is

Op you keep insisting your dog is friendly says every dog owner ever just before they attack someone. But its irrelevant what you think, other people have no idea if your dog is going to attack them or not.

So your dog bites (but they are good bites ), lunges, growls & lip curls at other dogs. I would call that a scary dog.

Just keep your dog on a lead and away from other people who haven't given their consent to be approached by a strange animal. I don't want to take ANY risk that I will be bitten (again), scratched, slobbered on, jumped on, muddied, barked at or even touched by a scary dog. So when a strange animal comes anywhere near me I will take action to protect myself and my children.

Ahhh you're upset you poor thing! Keep your bloody dog on a lead especially if it has form for biting. If I was with my DC and a muzzled, off lead dog approached there would have been strong words, never mind a glare in your direction.

The lack of understanding of dogs on this thread is amazing - dogs do nip at each other as part of their social interaction. Older dogs might nip at puppies esp to calm them down and teach social manners and let the other dog know not to keep doing what its doing. If you observe a bitch keeping check on its puppies you would see this a lot. Dogs are not humans, a slight slap down (nip) is part of their language. Again - this is not the same as a dog attack.

There's a massive difference between a nip and a bite. Although to the untrained eye they might look the same. A well socialised dog will have bite inhibition, they know its not acceptable to randomly nip people, but you can play fight with my terrier puppy, she will have lips drawn back, she can mouth your hand with her sharp little teeth, but they don't even pierce the skin, because we and her litter taught her bite inhibition, its an important skill to learn - how much pressure constitutes and nip and how much a bite. To someone else quite frankly it would look like I was being savaged. She will only do this when being played with, she doesn't have any interest in strangers, its all about her family. Many dogs do mouth their owners (and their clothes), its up to the owners to draw the line at what is acceptable for them and their dog. But people saying a bite and a nip are the same are wrong.

I think as long as you are confident your dog is under close control and you have taken steps to ensure she can't harm dogs that approach her, you'll just have to learn to live with peoples' adverse reactions.

Why should I keep a DOG aggressive dog away from people?
When there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest she poses a safety risk to people!

Your belief that she is dangerous to people is based purely on the fact that she can be not very nice around other DOGS .
It is not based on any actual evidence or studies.
All of which show there is no link between dog aggression and human aggression.
Absolutely none.
It’s a ridiculous argument.

And in any case, I stated repeatedly that my dog doesn’t approach people.
She only went to with this woman because of her odd (to the dog) reaction.
Or dogs usually.

I'm just not sure it matters what some random person thinks of your dog.

Muzzling it is the responsible thing to do. Letting it off-lead with a muzzle on... well it's still safer than being off-lead without one, and if it's under control and behaving reasonably, it's not a problem. I sympathise - I have one which is always muzzled and on a lead - people presume he's nasty. He isn't, but he has issues, so for everyone's safety, he's kept properly under control. That's just doing right by him.

Other people are allowed to be scared of, or simply dislike, your dog regardless of whether it's muzzled, though.

YANBU to be upset but YABU not to understand why the woman did what she did.

She doesn’t know why your dog has a muzzle on or how friendly it is. It’s instinctive of a parent to protect their child from danger, even if that danger is perceived and not actually real.

I’m sure your dog is lovely and you sound like a responsible dog owner but as a parent, I’d see an unfamiliar dog with a muzzle and instinctively think danger.

As someone with 6 dogs, YABU. Some people don't like dogs. Muzzled or not, and muzzled generally means your dog is a biter. Keep your dog on a leash unless somewhere they can be off. My dogs are leashed at all times despite great recall and no aggression, the only time they are let off is when we get to the dog park. My DS is terrified of dogs other than ours (he's scared of most animals) and nothing annoys me more than someone with their dog off leash shouting "oh it's okay, he doesn't bite!". I'm not fucking worried about biting. My son doesn't like dogs, get your dog away.

Maybe I'm missing something (I also never assume a dog wearing a muzzle is a threat to people) but a muzzled dog is the last kind of dog I would be worried about round my child.
Surely it means the owner is responsible, in this case definitely true and also if it's muzzled it physically can't bite anyway so?

Yawn - a poster who simply won't be told they are wrong.
Yabu to allow your muzzled dog to intimidate members of the public and their ddogs by wandering without a lead. I hope someone reports you for not being in control of a dangerous dog in a public place. You can't prove to the police your dog won't bite a human being. It looks dangerous whether you agree with that or not. Maybe it will be seized and pts.
Your ddog could pay the ultimate price for your entitled attitude op.

And if your dog bites other dogs then he is clearly capable of attacking people.

A common but wildly mistaken perception. Most dog-on-dog aggression happens because a dog missed the crucial socialisation window as a puppy and doesn't know how to behave around other dogs, read their signals etc. A dog can be as reliable as any dog is possible to be around humans - relaxed, friendly, obedient etc - but get very stressed around other dogs, because they're two different species and behave differently. Dogs can tell the difference between dogs and humans, funnily enough.

Most dog-on-human aggression happens because a dog is provoked by the human and has no other way of removing itself from the situation. Too many people don't know how to read canine body language and think their child 'playing' with the family dog is just too cute (ignoring the whale eye, licking lips, restlessly trying to move away only to be followed) or they've fallen under the spell of Cesar Milan and his disciples and think they need to 'assert their dominance' over a dog, e.g. by randomly taking its food away just as it's about to tuck in. It's incredibly rare for a dog to bite someone they haven't previously been interacting with in some way, so a dog just doing it's own dog thing in the park, sniffing about or chasing its ball or hoovering up chips from under the bench is vanishingly unlikely to suddenly turn into the killer rabbit from Monty Python and launch itself at your jugular unless you do something to specifically provoke it or allow your child to.

Having said all that, OP it never does any harm to assume that any random person you meet on a walk won't understand dog behaviour and psychology, so expect the worst from them and be pleasantly surprised by the odd one you meet who does, rather than taking it personally that this woman didn't ask for your dog's autograph.

YABU. I hate dogs bounding about off leads, and I hated it even more when my DC were small and in the buggy. Dog owners need to think about other people more - it's unnerving to have dogs bounding about and even more so if they are muzzled.

YABVU.

TBH, I'd be less scared of a muzzled dog than a big unmuzzled one. Good for you for being responsible. But it should be on a lead too.

Aprilshowerswontbelong - 'I hope your dog is killed as frankly I don't like the sound of it, or you'.

Awesome, just awesome

Most dog-on-human aggression happens because a dog is provoked by the human and has no other way of removing itself from the situation.

No. Some dogs can attack unprovoked. Anyway, why should I have to 'understand' your dog (or dogs in general)? Your dog should be on a leash and under your control. At all times.

Won’t be told?
Won’t be told what exactly april?
Because I already admitted I was being over sensitive and a bit unreasonable earlier in the thread!

Report me for what exactly?
Having a dog that is muzzled to stop it nipping other dogs that is off leash but has excellent recall/under verbal control, that doesn’t approach people, that rarely approaches other dogs that I call back the second I see someone looking a bit nervous?

You really think the police are going to pts a dog that shows no evidencr whatsoever of human aggression and is under verbal control that ran PAST a woman, only stopping out of curiosity because the woman was flapping.

Ok then.
🙄

Thurman - but the dog did not approach, it was happily passing, it turned to look at the sudden strange behaviour at the side of it and naturally changed direction. But you crack on with your aggressive tone. Well done for teaching your child irrational fear of an unthreatening dog and how to verbally abuse a complete stranger for doing nothing wrong - marvellous!

Why should I keep a DOG aggressive dog away from people?
That says it all, op thinks her dog has more rights than people.
Well don't be surprised if people treat your dog with fear when they see them unleashed. I would do a lot more than glare if it came near me.

Jaxhog, you seem unfamiliar with the meaning of the words "most" or the phrase "vanishingly rare". Neither of those things mean "all".

You don't necessarily have to understand dog behaviour in any detail; you just have to understand that the risk of being attacked unprovoked is tiny, and behave in proportion to that level of risk.

And that the risk of being bitten by a muzzled dog is pretty much zero!

No, I think my dog poses a risk to other dogs so she is muzzled and I avoid other dogs but I don’t think she poses a risk to people.
Not sure why that is so difficult to comprehend.

Oh no, wait, I do.
Because you think all dog aggressive dogs are savages waiting to kill people next.
Which they aren’t.

It’s nothing to do with rights.

It is common sense.

My dog is not human aggressive so I don’t worry about her PASSING people..

April - are you ok hun? You're a cat person aren't you?

Too many people don't know how to read canine body language

Well, to be fair, I don't think should have to be an expert in dog body language to go for a walk in the park with my kids.

All this woman did was shy away and shoot some filthy looks. So what? I probably would too. It's an unnerving situation, I've got a kid to protect, I have no bloody clue about dogs.

Just been to the park again today (we go on the way home from nursery) and out of the 5 dogs we saw there, not one was on a lead and not one went back to its owner's calls (but one adorable black floofy puppy was in a sling and let us pet her). While I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful dog owners (and I've known some of them), there are also plenty of less responsible ones who don't know shit about proper training. Your average non-dog person has no way of knowing what type of owner you are or what type of dog yours is. It's up to you as a dog owner to do the right thing.

This thread shows how hysterical people are, so far on this thread, we've seen threats to verbally attack the OP, hit dogs and try and get the dog killed for simply walking through the park if her muzzeled - what sounds like at the most dog aggressive - dog (and that sounds fairly minor tbh) were to come near them, then ironically portray a muzzled dog as the savage! I think if people are behaving in this way to another sentinent being they really should be accessing help tbh